Features

In 2013, we paid $163m burying or burning materials that could have sold for $217m

FOR YEARS, HOMEOWNERS in Lynn faced no restrictions on their trash output. Technically, their weekly allotment was six barrels of trash, yet if additional barrels were put out at the curb they were always picked up. Mattresses, couches, and other large items were collected at no cost. But in December new regulations took effect limiting(...)

Surveillance cameras are everywhere. Can we tap technology to tackle crime without giving up all our privacy?

ON THE DAY of the Boston Marathon two years ago, before the bombs and the blood, Ed Davis was taking in the race from the viewing stand at the Copley Square finish line. Being a cop as well as a spectator, however, he couldn’t help but ponder things cops think about these days, especially if(...)

As assisted living residents grow older, the facilities where they reside struggle to keep up.

LAURA SHUFELT VIVIDLY remembers the February 2013 call from the assisted living facility in Centerville where her mother was living. A nurse at the facility told Shufelt her mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, was being transported to Cape Cod Hospital because of unexplained bruises on her buttocks and wrist, pain in her shoulder,(...)

Sibling issues at the Massachusetts State Lottery

A correction has been added to this story. ONE OF THE KEYS to the success of the Massachusetts Lottery is its agents. There are more than 7,600 of them scattered across the state, doling out instant games tickets, Keno, pull tabs, and big money drawing tickets from behind counters in gas stations, convenience stores, supermarkets,(...)

This drug is conquering hepatitis C but, at $1,000 a pill and $84,000 per treatment, can we afford it? Health plans are already restricting access to the drug and the state prison system is not prescribing it at all

The diagnosis was a shock to Waxman, in part because she didn’t know much about the disease. Its name conjured up images of needles, drug use, and unprotected sex, but that didn’t make sense to her. “I had never lived what you would call a high-risk lifestyle,” she says.cheryl waxman was healthy all her life.(...)

State transportation officials take an unusual U-turn on use of a controversial asphalt additive

Workers lay down asphalt on Union Street in Hingham, one of many road projects using asphalt containing recycled engine oil. transportation and engineering officials from across New England gathered at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in June for what was being called an emergency “pavement summit.” The officials had learned a major asphalt provider had(...)

Suburbs are losing their clout as the road to the governor’s office now runs through the state’s cities

robert lewis jr. stood on a stage in Dorchester, gripping a podium and firing up the crowd in front of him, hollering, “Isn’t it so great to be with a winner?” There wasn’t anything unusual about the setting Lewis found himself in. He runs a foundation that uses baseball to mentor city kids. Before that,(...)

John Henry’s stewardship of newspapers didn’t extend to the Telegram & Gazette

shortly after buying the Boston Globe last year, John Henry wrote a 3,000-word essay for the newspaper explaining why he bought it. The purchase wasn’t about profits, Henry explained, it was about finding a way to sustain the newspaper for the long run. The Globe, he said, is the eyes and ears of the region(...)

Liberal State House veteran Stan Rosenberg is about to become one of the most powerful players in state government as president of the Massachusetts Senate. He’ll bring decades of insider experience to the post — and an outsider’s profile that’s atypical for a Beacon Hill pol.

Rosenberg has made a mark by taking on difficult assignments and as a consensus-builder who hears out all sides. if life had taken a different turn, Stan Rosenberg might be an Orthodox Jewish rabbi today. That was his ambition while studying for his bar mitzvah in the early 1960s at Temple Israel in Malden. Had(...)

Members of the Berkshire County NAACP, with Will Singleton in center in drawstring pants. Will singleton didn’t know what to make of it. The retired Pittsfield native had been back in town for years, and he never saw any African Americans working in City Hall. People of color account for nearly 15 percent of the(...)